...is not, as some people readily believe, the Patron Saint of Drunks. Neither is he the owner of the Cadillac Ranch. Nope, eponymous St Charles does not exist, rather the name was conceived by a lawyer, once the inhabitants of the city realised that their preferred name "Charleston" was already taken.... by Charleston.
St Charles is a small town about an hour from Chicago. It consists of a couple of gas stations, a cheap outlet mall and a training centre. The local booze industry is kept running, even growing, by the steady strean of coporate trainees coming through the Q Centre (the aforementioned training centre).
And this training centre is where I have been for the past 3 days, learning how to teach the students who will be arriving here this weekend. Presentation techniques, conversation techniques, verbal and non-verbal communication skills are all being learned - a very helpful couple of days. Tonight is our first group night out at the Cadillac Ranch. For those of you who have ever seen "Porky's" - it's a similar bar, only Porky's had slightly more class, and much better music. It's going to be a killer of a night - however we're doing it in the name of teaching - so at least we know what our students will be in for on Friday mornings - it helps us to work more efficiently..... sound convincing? No - I didn't think so..... It's an 8am start tomorrow - with the opportunity on Friday morning to choose between the sedate wake up call of your alarm clock, or the rather more official wake up call of 2 big guys with batons, coming into your room at 8:05..... Personally, I'd choose the former.....
So that's a brief update from Chicago - it's been snowing, the rivers and the streams are frozen (there is a big pond just inches from the bar - frozen solid. Cue big "Rich-shaped" hole by the end of the week).......
Ciao for now!
Rich
